Single Color Liquid Spiral with Black Accents
Spirals are one of the most popular tie dye designs, and in my opinion, they are one of the most versatile too. No matter how many different designs I make, they are still one of the most requested.
I wanted to show how to make a simple single color spiral that has black accents. This is a simple shirt, but the black dye accents really make whatever dye color you use stand out. Here is a link to the YouTube tutorial video for this shirt:
The shirt was prepped in the usual way: washed and dried and then soaked in a soda ash solution for 20-30 minutes, and wrung out in my Panda spin dryer until it was barely damp. I spiraled it using a fork to begin the spiral and then I put the shirt aside to dry completely.
I am often asked why I let the shirts dry before I apply the dye. Let me start by saying, dyeing damp or dry is perfectly acceptable. They both work really well and they will give you great results. However, I personally find it easier to get good color saturation when the shirt is dry. White can be a great design element in a tie dyed shirt, but there are some times when I want the entire shirt to be colored, and I think it is easier to achieve when the shirt is dry. When a shirt has been soaked and is damp from the soda ash solution, the fibers of the shirt are already saturated or full of soda ash water. When you apply dye to an already saturated shirt, the fibers are already full and don’t easily wick up the dye. However, when the shirt fibers are dry - they will readily wick the dye up into the fibers. Kind of like a sponge - when it is too wet it won’t absorb water really well, but when it is dry it is more absorbent and can hold more liquid. When I start applying dye to a dry shirt, I can see the difference in the fibers when they start to get saturated with dye. They will sort of change from a lighter kind of fuzzy look to a darker squishy look (those are highly technical terms - ha!). I can also press on the shirt and I will see the dye bubble up a bit. If the shirt was dry when I began applying the dye, I know that the liquid that is bubbling up is dye and not just soda ash water. I find dyeing dry particularly helpful with thick folds like mandalas and geodes. It’s not as necessary for thinner folds that don’t have as many layers of fabric.
I’ve heard complaints that dyeing dry causes the dye to bead or run off of the shirt and not soak in properly. I have had that happen a couple of times too. Honestly, it isn’t something that happens often for me though. If that happens, I will lightly spray a bit of soda ash solution over the shirt to break the surface tension and allow the dye to soak in properly.
Okay, back to dyeing the spiral. I chose Kingfisher from Dharma Trading Company for the colored part of this shirt, and Black Bang from Custom Colours for the accents. One of the easiest ways to achieve the black accents is to apply the color to one side of the shirt and the black to the other side. For this shirt I added the Kingfisher to the front and the Black Bang to the back. It’s important not to oversaturate when adding black to the back side of the shirt. I tend to be pretty heavy handed when I apply dye. However, if too much black dye is applied to the back, it will soak through to the front and overtake all of the Kingfisher from the front. When I process shirts that have a darker side, I will put the dark side down on the rack for processing. Doing that allows gravity to work with me to keep the bright colors on the front of the shirt.
This design can be done using a variety of color combinations. The dark accents don’t have to be black. For that matter, they don’t really even have to be dark. You could even use 2 different colors that have the same intensity. As always though, it’s important to remember to choose colors that won’t blend into an undesirable color on the shirt. Because if the accent color isn’t dark, the two colors will mix on the shirt and form a third color. So, just make sure that third color is a pretty one!